The present invention relates to a spinal prosthetic implant for fusing adjacent vertebrae and an insertion instrument for implanting the same.
The vertebral column extends from the skull to the pelvis and is made up of 32xcx9c35 individual bones (vertebra) and intervertebral disks between adjacent vertebrae. Recently, where that a patient suffers from sciatica, lumbago or spinal fracture, vertebral column union administration of medicine is performed. That is, damaged or injured natural discs are removed from the vertebral column of humans and adjacent vertebrae are fused by implanting substitutes such as a spinal prosthetic implant.
FIG. 1 is a side view of a spinal prosthetic implant in accordance with the conventional art, the prosthetic implant is generally constructed of a housing of a hollow plunger cylinder shape and bone chips taken from the patient or other human beings, or a substitute thereof. The bone chips or substitutes thereof are packed into an internal cavity of the housing formed in the shape of a hollow cylinder so as to promote and stabilize the fusion of adjacent vertebrae.
The prosthetic implant is directly implanted into the inserting space formed in the vertebral column. The prosthetic implant 100 is inserted using an insertion instrument and then the insertion instrument is removed without moving the prosthetic implant 100 so as to promote internal growth of adjacent spine backbone.
The prosthetic implant, called a cage, is constructed of various shapes such as ring illustrated in FIG. 1, a rectangular, a spiral cylinder and so on.
The prosthetic implant 100 in accordance with the conventional art usually has a nut hole 101. The prosthetic implant 100 is implanted into the inserting space formed in the vertebral column by sequentially carrying out the steps of screwing a bolt of an insertion instrument into the nut hole 101 of the prosthetic implant 100, inserting and placing the prosthetic implant 100 into the inserting space between vertebrae and unscrewing the bolt of the insertion instrument.
However, that kind of implanting method is inconvenient because the bolt of the insertion instrument must be rotated several times for separating the insertion instrument from the prosthetic implant 100.
Further, the prosthetic implant of the conventional art has a projection on an upper and a lower surfaces thereof respectively to protect the prosthetic implant from slipping forward (the abdomen) or backward (the back). However, because the projection has no specific direction, the conventional prosthetic implant tends to be easily slip in response to the fixed force of downward load.
The present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above problems.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a prosthetic implant that can be easily, stably and rapidly be inserted into an inserting space of a human body during an operation for implanting the prosthetic implant.
It is, therefore, another object of the present invention is to provide a prosthetic implant that can be stably fixed after the prosthetic implant is implanted into a human body.
It is, therefore, still another object of the present invention to provide an insertion instrument that is capable of stably fixing a prosthetic implant during the implanting operation so that the prosthetic implant is secure.
In accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a prosthetic implant comprising a housing for being packed with bone chips; an inserting hole formed at a first end of the housing, through which an insertion instrument can be inserted; and a connection recess formed on inner surface of the housing around the inserting hole, on which the insertion instrument is stably placed.
In accordance with the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inserting hole and the connection recess have an oblong or rectangle shape and the connection hole is concentric with the inserting hole.
In accordance with the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, an uneven section is formed at a second end of the housing for fixing the prosthetic implant during an implanting operation, the second end being opposite to the first end.
In accordance with the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of projections having an inclined plane are formed at an upper end and a lower end of the housing, respectively, and the inclined planes of the projections formed in opposite sides from the center of the housing are opposite slope to each other in direction.
In accordance with the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inclined planes of the projections slope down toward the center of the housing.
In accordance with the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inclined planes of the projections slope up toward the center of the housing.
In accordance with the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, the housing has sliding planes at the first end.
In accordance with a second preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an insertion instrument for inserting a prosthetic implant between adjacent vertebrae, comprising: a connection member having a connection chip at a first end; and a rotating means for rotating and returning the connection member at a predetermined angle.
In accordance with the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the rotating means includes a supporting member having a hollow through which the connection member is inserted; and an elastic member elastically supported by the supporting member for giving elastic force to the connection member.
In accordance with the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the rotating means further includes a handle being connected to a second end of the connection member for rotating the connection member, the second end being opposite to the first end.
In accordance with the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the supporting member has an elastic member receiving recess at an end for receiving the elastic member.
In accordance with the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the elastic member is a leaf spring.
In accordance with the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the elastic member is a disk shape having a hole in the center and has a protruded portion around the hole.
In accordance with the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the connection chip has an oblong or rectangle shape.
In accordance with the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, the handle has an impacting section at an end for striking the handle while inserting the prosthetic implant between adjacent vertebrae.